Friday, March 29, 2013

Yesterday in that magical quiet time between when my family peeps have headed off to school & work and while my work peeps are driving in, I had my hot glue gun out heating up. A small little fun project before starting into the thick of it.

I was checking a few e-mails and heard what I mistook for gunshots. Coming from behind me.

I jerked around in time to see the fan/light turn off. Smelled that lovely little ozone smell and thought WTF!!!

A phone call to THE MAN assured me if I left the breaker off all day that nothing bad would happen and we could figure out exactly what almost caused a fire later.

Around 10am the house phone ran again.

In a small voice THE MAN told me that Joe had passed. Not much else to say except I love you and are you OK and all that.

The rest of the day was a bit of hell after that. I mean, he had been sick for ages and ages. We knew they were holding out hope his family would make it home for Easter and one last visit.

It's still bullshit. And I hate the cancer that ate him and took him away from us.

He was my Dad's age and one of those people that was an endless source of awesome knowledge and just plain cool. He was one of those major figures growing up in THE MAN'S life and then mine later as I have known him since senior year in high school.

I made a layout of just Joe back in early February because I had heard he was on a natural treatment that seemed to be helping. It was a small little ray of hope.

I think I will give my page to Marilyn when I see her this next week. I kept writing my blog some days just for her. She has been playing nurse for Joe and said that she read my blog in the early morning quiet and it made her happy.

See, Marilyn is a world class crafter/artist. Not one in blogland, but in real life. You give her some art supplies and a few minutes and you are ending up with something cool. Might be a scrapbook page, might be a glass ornament, might be something painted. She had the attic of her house wired up with great lighting and a black and white tiled floor. Joe made that for her to she could work.

See, Joe was an electrician. Worked with wires and electricity all the time.

When THE MAN came home, he used a tester that Joe had given him and shown him how to use to diagnose my problem.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

So while at school I heard over the announcements that the school was going to sent stuff to our troops over seas. I didn't really pay attention to it as I don't normally get involved in those types of things simply because I always figured that everyone else would load the boxes up or something of that sort. As a few days went by I noticed that the boxes always stayed empty and it wasn't because they where always being emptied. It was because no one was putting anything in them! So this time I decided to get involved, even though I normally avoid those types of things. I made up a list of stuff for Mom to get me from the store and I made these cute little bird things. "Perhaps"I thought "these little guys will amuse the troops" I gave them all names and little personalities written on a piece of paper witch I tucked into the cans.

I hand drew an Eagle with a US flag and had Mom copy them. I put a little about myself in the cards and I made sure to include a return address, hoping that maybe one of the troops would decide to write me back. So the day i meant to bring them into school I of course, being the typical Lexi i am, forget it on the counter. My brother who goes to school an hour later than i do because he is still in the elementary grabbed it and brought it to school with him.

His teacher told him he could take the package during recess. But he of course forgot it in his rush to get outside on the playground, go figure seeing how I don't even get a recess, so it spent a day in some cubby and the next day it made it up to me during my 3 period study hall. Of course as soon as all my classmates noticed the gray walmart bag they immediately assumed it was cupcakes or something, witch is confusing seeing how my birthday is in October. So after explaining that it wasn't actually my birthday and that it was for the troops they all got disinterested and and sad that no the bag didn't actually contain cupcakes or some other tasty treat. So finally the bag containing the treats for the troops was put in the box planed to be sent to the troops.

This ones name is Mickey along with friends, Molly, Mike, and DerpyBird

The letter i sent to the troops

The inside of my letter, hopefully you guys will learn something about me too! :)

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Blogged a bit about this page yesterday in a journaling page I made for my Peru album.

This town was SO COOL. Ollantaytambo is basically an Inca Ruin with a town added in. Not to mention a train station that takes you up the mountain to Machu Piccu. I wanted more time to hang at these ruins but alas, we had a train to catch!Can you see that HUGE slab of rock up there with a perfectly built up ramp? That was left at some point in time during construction and remains to this day to give Archaeologists an idea of how those large stones were moved.

Here is a cross section of my page. I fell in love with the colors of the rocks so wanted to bring them out with my paper selection.

Made a little stage up top for my rock photos.

Love this little die cut that I inked up and sprayed. Shirley hooked me up with that awesome denim flower and I cut some banners to use up some scraps!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

I love perusing scrappers blog posts because sometimes I hear about challenges that way.

This one is no different and I loved it because well, it looked like a house AND had four spots I could possibly put photos.

Thanks for a great post Sian and hooking me up with this sketch from over at Sketchbook365 that is based on a layout made by...well Sian! This doesn't close until mid next month, so plenty of time to have a go of it!

Here is the journaling so you don't have to squint. It is not ALL the journaling from that day, but takes me up to my next page that I want to show you tomorrow. Attempting to start working in order now to fill in the gaps in my scrapbooks from that trip.

Sunday September 23rd:

After a great night’s rest, I
woke up and took an early morning tour around Sol y Luna and looked at their
gardens. Amazing flowers and sweet colorful buildings! I was wishing we had
another night there! After a delicious breakfast of typical Peruvian things to
eat, we were off to visit the town Ollantaytambo and the Incan ruins. Where our
bus parked, there was a small market and Dad bought us all walking sticks and a
water bottle holder. The walking sticks were pretty snazzy, but at the time I
recall thinking he was nuts. I was sure I did not need one of those silly
things. I was so wrong! Then we got to the base of our hike up to see the
ruins…and I was ever so happy for one!

We saw several really cool things
when we got to the top. The first was a rock that had been left in place by an
Inca builder and showed specifically how the large stones were moved into
place. The theory is that this site was both a temple and a fortress, but work
stopped in the middle of building it. The temple part was also amazing. The
carved rock and sheer smooth rock face truly seemed like a place of worship.

Making this page coincided with cleaning the scrap area and I found these great chippys from a kit I had. So, I used a bunch of scraps and some dimensional modge podge and got them all set up like little paper gems.

Here is a shot of the second side. I now have a hankering for more chippies like this and to alter them. They got so pretty shiny and blingy!

Hop on over and have a play if you want. I think it's a great sketch. Of course Sian's post of what she scrapped is also very interesting. I like to have all the details when I'm eye ballin' a page myself. I must have scrapper stalker tendencies.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Now, THE MAN has wanted to customize my jeep for ages and ages. We just could not fathom spending $1500 on parts that were already perfect!

So, after we got our estimate for repairs and he realized we might be able to DIY the repair and get TWO NEW BUMPERS, he was all over it like white on rice.

So, before you knew it, the UPS dude was pulling up with boxes of parts. He and I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out how to get the rear bumper off his truck since it was under the entire load of boxes for the day. I hate to admit he stood on a lot of boxes while he was figuring it out. I don't think marking things fragile really helps since his feet can't read....

Anyhow, several nights later I had the new title of Chief Assistant Wrench Girl. Mostly I just held things in place, refilled wine glasses, and retrieved parts.

They went together fairly easily and now I'm the proud owner of new custom bumpers.

So, this is the second big project I've been working on lately.

I started this page with pink and THE MAN wandered past and was outraged.

He was like, it's like all girly and all that....and wrinkled his nose. And THE JEEP is dirty!

Since he comments like NEVER, I decided to pull the photos off and make it more manly. Could not do much about the poor Jeep being dirty. If it ever stops snowing and all that jazz, we can actually wash a vehicle and keep it clean. Will have to take glamour shots of it later when and if Spring ever arrives....

I won't link this up, since I added a color of my own...green! The Jeep is a very very very dark green you can only see in some lights, but I know it's there. Well, I'll link it up, but just saying girls, don't add me in the mix. Consider this just a shout out sayin' thanks for a cool color challenge!

Here is a sideways view so you can see the layers and dimension.

And to keep it real, in my haste, I used the wrong abbreviation for SYR (or Syracuse NY) where the accident occurred. So, I made it stand out with an extra piece of paper and different color of marker. I actually like it a lot better.

And one last photo of flowers. I thought I'd never use up that weird gray black one. Like it better with some microbeads, gold smudges, and white. Loving those two stick pins...and the burlap tag!

Linking it up over at Scrap For Help and their use burlap challenge. There are a few little recycled items on here too as that is also one of their requirements. The gold eyelash ribbon came off a pretty gift I received and under the flower, there is a used gift tag with raffia!

Friday, March 22, 2013

I have been on a feather kick lately and when I found the blue peacock feathers that were already earrings at a local store, I bought them to kick them up a notch. Added new hooks and the black/clear/rhinestone part. FANCY! I know.

They will look great with jeans, braided hair and my ratty green sweatshirt. ;-) I am kidding, I made them for a friend's birthday.

That is why I had to add a fancy little gift box. That little shimmery tie around the box is elastic, so I suppose, she can wear it as a bracelet. Fun times.

I am sure she goes to a lot of fancy balls, so perhaps she can wear it with one of those Downton Abbey gowns?

And in other news, I am sitting here breathing varnish fumes.

My new scrapbooking cabinet is mostly done.

Well, it is painted and cleared. Unfortunately right this minute it's giving me a huge headache as it is still smelly.

BUT I LOVE IT. It fought us the entire way. It is great it is supposed to look old and beat up already...since we accomplished that by accident. Some of the clear did not behave.

See how perfectly my paints fit in there?

Still have to get the shelves and the stained glass doors from my Mom and Dad.

Stained glass is all done, just waiting for us to get it at Easter. How to you like that RED? THE MAN picked out all the glass and colors.

Will be glad when the whole project is done. It was one of two large projects we have been messing with lately.

The first one I haven't told you about yet....saving that for a scrappy page!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The first day of Spring was yesterday. Here in the North County we like to hold on to our snow just a wee bit more. Whhhoohhoo. Daffodils are for WUSSIES!

Actually I am trying to be happy about it. I keep telling myself SNOW IS LIKE GLITTER. PRETTY GLITTER. YOU LOVE IT.

Not working. Looking forward to pumping gas without gloves and my hood up. And...shhh, I really want some daffodils!

I will honestly tell you for SURE that THIS HERE is my last page about snow until next winter. No really. I am being for REALS here.

Silly Forrest Dog is getting itchy for some grass too. He never rolls in the snow which is why THE MAN caught him on camera in the act. It was a rare occurrence.

When I showed him the page, Forrest was a bit indignant, but he said it would make that Wally dog over in Australia jealous since he cannot roll in the snow, only sand. Lizzy Hill, can you show Wally this post? He would hate for him to miss it.

So, about my background. I accidentally printed this photo huge on regular old printer paper. Thought it was too good to waste so covered it with a bit of vellum and a lot of glitter and a bit of clear spray to hold it...which in turned crinkled things, but also made me happy.

Might be able to see here a bit. Can also see silly dog and all the bling I used on the side in a fit of kit busting.

Anyhow, one more day to the weekend. That always cheers one up, even if it involves more shoveling!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

So, a few years ago I had aspirations of becoming a famous scrapbooker. To me, that meant you had stuff in a magazine. How one accomplished this, I had no clue. Recently I discovered blogging and the on-line community. Which by the way, appears to be one path to publication and becoming KNOWN. I was all over it like white on rice.

You start by blogging your creation, participate in as many challenges as possible, promote your work on every available social media site, and with luck, you are picked to be on a Design Team.

Now, not every Design Team is created equal. Some promote your work, others send you free stuff and you promote them, and yet others have some high handed freak boss barking out orders electronically from some corner of the blog-o-sphere. Personally I tend to stick to drama free zones with less rules, but that is just how I roll.

Somewhere in there is where you work on getting hoards of followers and send your work to the far reaches of the Galaxy.

Once I figured all this out, it seemed like a boatload of work. I mean, I'm all for being famous, but one has to have time to actually CREATE and to me, that is funner than e-mail and way more funner than someone giving me orders. I also enjoy watching other peeps get published and all that jazz. Vicarious Scrap Rock-stardom if you will. And then there are the cool friendships you make and the community you feel a part of.

Fast forward to now.

The infamous Liebster is making it's way around blogland again. I personally like this little award mostly. I have gotten it before and just recently got it again twice. I think it's mission of introducing peeps to blogs they may not have run into before is Rock Star Quality. Of course, I see that as a daily mission on my blog. If someone inspires you, link to them and tell them they rock. Just passing a little bit of Karma along you know.

What I don't care for is that it focuses on peeps with less than 200 followers. If that follow button thingie with people's faces went away tomorrow, I'd be happy. I think it's nuts! What would you say if I told you that I have kept writing my blog for a friend of mine who told me she reads my blog daily and it's a small bit of sunshine in her life that is filled with taking care of a VERY sick hubby. Honestly, I don't give a rats ass about how many followers one has. I do care about the sunshine.

Ok, getting off soap box since I have an award to hand out...

The last time I got one of these I handed it over to Jean in my Lobster with Butter Post. She is a good egg so hop over there if you want and check her out. She doesn't post oober amounts but hangs out in blog land as inspiration and time permits.

I got the award this time from Lizzy Hill who exemplifies all that is good in blog land. She is CONSTANTLY linking back to peeps who have sent her coolness in the mail and peeps who have inspired her.

I also got this award from Fi who I started following ages and ages ago because she used black as her background on a page. It made my eye balls fall out, seriously. Plus I thought she might be able to slay dragons being that brave and all. I have SINCE used black as a background many times, but when I was poking at her page on my ipad ages ago, I was IMPRESSED. Still am!

I am awarding it to a blogger I started to follow for her lovely shabby cards and ribbon roses. She has since graduated to lovely items you might wear. I am stalking I mean following her with the hopes these items may make it into an etsy store which means into my waiting hands...Thank you Handgathered for making me lick my laptop screen one too many times with your fabulous amazing little pieces of art!

And to top it off I am not just handing out a little bling you post on your blog. I am sending Lizzy Hill, Fi, and Handgathered something sweet! Take a gander at these lovely little handmade cuppy cakes.

My friend Lisa who blogs over at You Made Me Ink made them for a special occasion. She is trying to raise money for Cupcake Camp KC. Decided I'd donate and also advertise for her here. AND send a couple to some sweet fellow bloggers! Lisa has five trillion followers but I will not hold that against her. ;-) She is a good blogger to stalk, super amounts of inspiration there!

THE MAN often has brilliant ideas. A while ago I said I wanted to put this little Herb Ox display on my counter, but it was hard because the little Herb Ox boxes did not sit straight and kept falling out. He suggested hot gluing them in. I was horrified. I said, why then you can't use them! He said, oh yes you can, glue the bottom and then you can take the top off if needed.

Goodness he is smart. And no, he did not hack my blog although I suspect he might someday. I did put him as an admin on my blog JUST IN CASE I was ever too sick to tell peeps that I was laying in a hospital bed and did not have my laptop. See how my brain works?

Always worse case. ;-)

I added Tim Holtz feet and now I am totally in LOVE with this. Makes me smile every time I walk by. And yes, Mushrooms in my kitchen too. Matches the freaky grouchy fighting monarch creature I have framed on the wall.

Which is different than the one that my mail program gave me to use. Mine only had that single strip of crinkled tape at the top for some reason or other. I really can't say honestly why. I even showed THE MAN. I said, Look ANNE IS CHALLENGING US to come up with something creative. He backed away from the crazy scrapbooker slowly. No need to alarm her when she has that LOOK in her eyes.

Anyhow, due to the fact I was channeling my inner Another Freaking Scrappy, this here is what you got. A layout where I made the background myself and added washi tape and used a circular type element.

So, the background was actually printed off Wikipedia on a 12 by 12 sheet of cream colored cardstock. I then inked it up with various ink pads I had and then spritzed with alcohol. Wanted that water colored look.

SINCE my ink cartridge is nearly dead, I got some lovely colors I did not expect but made me happy.

Here is a close up of my flowers and title. I liked how wet the letters ended up. Covered them with dimensional Modge Podge.

Our first full day involved being sold Coca leaves to help us endure the elevation. Lest you think we are druggies, let me paste here a little excerpt from Wikipedia.

Coca may refer to any of the four cultivated plants which belong to the familyErythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant is an important cash crop in Bolivia and Peru.[1] It also plays a significant role in many traditional Andean cultures as well as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (see the Traditional uses). Coca is best known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. However, the alkaloid content of coca leaves is low: between .25% and .77%, and production of cocaine from coca requires complex chemical processes.[2] This means that chewing the leaves or drinking coca tea does not produce the high (euphoria, megalomania) people experience with cocaine.They did honestly seem to help!I could use some today to get me acclimated to Monday since I'm having a bad case of the MONDAYS.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

We will be celebrating here in the Pratt Household with Corned Beef and Cabbage, Blueberry Shine and perhaps another Shamrock Shake. Although, Luke (or should I say Luck) here has already had his for 2013. :-)

Also, I am letting Miss Lexi take over my blog today. She said she has a story to tell and it's not fair that Grandpa always gets a spot on Holidays. Don't say I didn't warn you. She is a chip off the old block. And when I mean OLD BLOCK I do mean THE MAN and his genetics to be specific.

Bottle Flies

Mom, or Mitra to you guys, told me I could take over her blog
for a little bit. I am Lexi but most of the time when I’m in the virtual world I
am often referred to as eragonandme. I thought you guys would like to read
about my way of messing with my parents.

So let me give you a bit of back ground.
About two summers ago our house was filled with flies. I hated them and have
ever since. They buzz around your head and crawl all over your food (not
mentioning what else they do). So to get revenge on those stupid bugs I trap
them in bottles and leave them. Before you go getting any bad ideas about me, I
personally think they deserve it. I mean they have wings! Why can’t they get
their own darn food!? ANYWAY… so even though it’s still winter-ish we are
already dealing with those little buggers. Mom noticed and told me to get rid
of them because friends of theirs where coming over. So I flushed the flies and
instead of putting the bottles back on the shelf I snuck it into my room where
I tore up some paper and wrote: I normally keep flies prisoner in here but mom
told me to get rid of them. So I made fake ones. And then I drew little bugs
beside the words. Mom almost died laughing when she found my bottle.

I’m hoping to become a writer on her
blog. At least monthly. My goal is to amuse those out there with funny little
stories or perhaps writing out of my imagination. I write from animal’s
perspectives often so you may hear a little about Patti, Eragon, or Forrest
(our Pets) or I may just write from any other animal’s opinion. Sometimes I
might write more than one story or I might just write something small due to
other things (homework or something). I do take suggestions and I love
feedback! Give me your opinion! I hope to one day become a famous writer, but
so far I haven’t been able to finish a book due to writers block or boredom of
the storyline. But maybe one day I’ll actually be able to finish one and make
millions! Not likely. But anyway, enjoy! ;-)

Friday, March 15, 2013

This sketch is lovely! I used most of it true to form with the exception of a large circle at the top with hearts on it because we loved our girl guide Karina!

Karina was our girl guide in Peru. As my Dad and I figured out later, not all girl guides are created equal. The one we had in Lima we considered tying up and leaving in the catacombs. Karina was great the whole trip! We had good times with her and learned all sorts of interesting tid bits about Peruvian culture. As I'm working on my album from this trip, making a page to talk about Karina was vital!

One of the parts I enjoyed the most about this page was making those bright colored flowers. I pulled up my Tim Holtz tattered floral punch and cut out some old muslim. Added some ink pad stain and some alcohol inks and came up up with this! Also cut out a fern and got crazy with glitter. Love the heart I added in the center too. That was previously white and was stained with more alcohol ink.

And, here is a side view of my page. Love the contrasts against the white. So pretty!

Hop on over there today and check me out. I answered a few questions of theirs. Things you might not know about me? Or maybe you do.

I got three masks in the package and have been dying for a good excuse to make another as I really wanted to alter the plastic mask before starting with the glitter.

Also, I thought I'd do a quick tutorial since it's actually fairly easy to get something this shimmery and shiny with not a lot of effort. Here are the items I started with. The actual mask was super cheap and purchased at a party store. The heart is just a paper shape cut from a Silhouette and the paper I used to trace the shapes I wanted.

So, here is my advice on glitter. We all have some I am sure. I have a huge set of rainbow colored glitters from Martha. RARELY do they see the light of day. I like glitter, I really do. It is just messy.

I used an old cookie sheet for mine and still ended up wearing quite a bit while applying. It does feel good to use some up...

The gold & purple glitter I attached to this shape with Krylon Clear Gloss Spray. It is NOT MOVING at this point. It has become one with the heart. The spray is sticky and then seals it. This is the same method I used for the mask since if you were to actually use the mask for one of those Masquerade parties you are always attending, you would want to avoid wearing glitter on your face or hands.

I let the heart dry on one of the masks since it was quite wet and floppy. Wanted it to have a cool shape when I added it to the actual mask.

Here is the mask after I traced some shapes into the plastic and also punched out a star. I think it would be fun to get really crazy and creative with the shape of the mask.

I used three different glitters to get the color I wanted. Don't be afraid to mix and match. The idea is to make a small dent in your glitter stash! I simply coated the black plastic with the clear spray and starting sprinkling. Many coats of clear spray and more sprinkling, I added my gold heart. I wanted it to be part of my mask, not just sitting on it, so added some Dimensional modge podge to fill in the areas the heart touched the mask. Added more glitter...and more clear spray at the end.

Here is a close up of a upcycled earring I used to decorate the side of my mask. I used the same clear coat and a black glitter. Decorated the top with the center to an old bracelet that was dyed with alcohol ink. The bling the other side by the star got the same treatment. Love that it works on most everything!

And, here you have it! I'm popping this mask in the mail to head over to my friend Lisa from You Made Me Ink. She is always a rock star blogger and it was her challenge that I won! Hope she likes it and can wear it to all those fancy masquerade parties she attends. ;-)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Yesterday I blogged about my first day in Peru and also part of my second. This page is a continuation of my previous journaling page. Right now they are back to back in my book so you'd flip the first page and finish reading on the second.

I did have a ScrapFriends sketch I used for this page, but I made my photos much bigger and added a few extra not to mention the huge journaling section, so I am not sure how similar they look now! Loved the little flippy top though that looks like an envelope...wish I could have added the string part!

My journaling so you don't have to strain your eyes:

It was a humble little open area with
tables full of textiles for sale, a nice place to sit and drink more tea, and
watch their youngest give us a presentation. She spoke quite well in ENGLISH on
the various plants needed to dye all that beautiful yarn. I am guessing she was
around 12 and also had braces, which was a stark contrast to many of the other
kids running around. I am thinking that the tour groups stopping in brought her
family a good income so they could pay for the braces and keep their
traditional crafts alive by hand making all sorts of lovely items.

They had a small little oven
going near by the guinea pig cage, which we later found out was a Peruvian Delicacy.
I did not manage to eat any while I was there!

After purchasing some lovely
items, we got back on the bus and kept driving toward the Urubamba Valley. We
made a brief stop at an overlook and took some photos. We could see a grain
storage area. We ran into our first Peruvian Family with small people who
wanted money for their picture. It was an interesting experience. By the time
we left, we were starting to get hungry…

Thank goodness they had an amazing lunch planned at a Hacienda. The food was delicious!
It should not have been surprising, due to how fertile the valley was. All you could see was various food plots as we
drove down the twisty windy road to the beautiful fortress.

The Hacienda had amazing gardens,
huge humming birds and a real lemon tree! They also had tons of Inca artifacts
and some Spanish Art work. The Inca stuff was lovely and the Spanish…well,
quite a bit over the top.

After our bellies were full, we
were on our way to where we were going to sleep for the night, the Fairy House.
This was by far one of my favorite places. It was really called Sol y Luna. I
really want my own Fairy House now!

And here is a sideways view of my page. Hope you can see the photos this way...the poor guinea pigs are under the stove where they are keeping warm in the top photo. I know, not a yummy idea personally....I am told they taste like fried chicken. ;-(

I am back tomorrow, but not with more Peru stuff. I have to post a photo of my latest project I made for the Spot Light over at Our Creative Corner. I got a bit crazy with the glitter on that one...